ye gods
Used to express surprise or incredulity.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Ye gods, that is a huge spider.”
“Ye gods, I cannot believe you actually finished that entire project in one night.”
“Ye gods, the sheer scale of the destruction left behind by the storm was truly difficult to comprehend.”
disputed origin
Attested since the seventeenth century, the expression is probably a British variant of the exclamation oh my God. The pluralisation of the deity was likely intended to avoid direct blasphemy, shifting the address away from the singular God of scripture to a more general, pagan assembly. The phrasing finds a parallel in the Danish I guder.
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bow down before the porcelain god
Synonym of worship the porcelain god (“to vomit into a toilet bowl”).
- 02
call someone everything but a child of God
To call someone many abusive names.
- 03
God forbid
indicating that the occurrence of something is very undesirable
- 04
God forfend
Don't let it be.
- 05
God is in the detail
Expresses the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; i.e. details are important.
- 06
god that failed
A notable let-down or flop; a concept, product, or person that has failed to live up to very high expectations.
- 07
God's eye
A decorative diamond-shaped item woven from yarn, associated with Mexican and Central and South American Native American peoples.
- 08
God's gift
Said of someone with an inflated sense of self-importance, or (occasionally) something that is overvalued.
Last updated August 10, 2026